2. Personal information of hundreds of millions of hotel guests may have been compromised in a major data breach.

The Marriott International hotel chain said its Starwood reservation system had been hacked, exposing the names, addresses, passport numbers, emails and phone numbers of up to 500 million customers, going as far back as 2014. Above, a Marriott-owned property in Chicago.

“This is an incredibly big number,” a cybersecurity expert told us.

Cyberattacks happen all the time, our tech reporters say, and you may want to assume that your information has been taken. They offer some tips for protecting your identity online.

“I was just a small piece in a whole fathom of lies,” one former student said.

Our reporters spoke to parents of former students, current and former students, former teachers and law enforcement agents — 46 people in all. They examined student records and court documents showing that the school’s founder and a teacher had pleaded guilty to crimes related to violence against students. Above, the school in Breaux Bridge, La.

Here are their six takeaways, including that students say they were encouraged to lie in college application essays.

CreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times

4. Seizures of heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine are up sharply over the last year.

The decline turned around after the White House dispatched more lawyers to the border. But experts told us that the policy on illegal border crossing — a misdemeanor on the first offense — had pulled resources away from the pursuit of drug traffickers, another key administration priority. Above, at a Texas border checkpoint.

“There is a finite number of federal prosecutors, and there’s only a finite number of courtrooms,” a former prosecutor said.

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5. John Chau spent years planning a missionary trip to North Sentinel, an island in the Indian Ocean, intent on making contact with an isolated tribe there.

It was what he felt called to do, a friend said.

But after landing, he struggled to communicate. The islanders were aggressive, as they have been with just about everyone else who had tried to make contact. They shouted at him. They shot arrows. Then they killed him.

Scientists in China and across the globe are asking whether the country’s intense focus on scientific achievement has come at the expense of ethical standards.

The government is pouring millions of dollars into research and luring back Western-educated Chinese talent. The drive to succeed is so strong, many scientists in China say, that they adopt a “do first, debate later” approach. Above, a procedure at a Chinese university hospital.

Maybe you’ve received an invitation for a retirement seminar held at a fancy restaurant. Our personal finance columnist was intrigued, so he R.S.V.P.’d.

Also on the menu: a lesson on equity indexed annuities, a complicated insurance product that he’s skeptical about.

The steak dinner pitch might not be a con game, he writes, but it is a bit of a psychological dance. His takeaways: Do lots of research, read the fine print, and seek a second or third opinion from an independent financial planner before making an investment.

Lesson 1 on her list: Women are there to be kissed. (See: John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in “The Quiet Man.”)

But she also grew up adoring performers like Cicely Tyson in “Sounder” and Shelley Winters in “The Poseidon Adventure” — very different characters who were strong in recognizably human ways.

“They felt real to me, like people, not decoration.”

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CreditGilbert Bellamy/Reuters

10. Finally, this is your periodic reminder that it’s not all bad news out there.

Major airports are helping travelers to arrive by bicycle. Very young dancers are taking “The Nutcracker” very seriously. And reggae music has made it onto Unesco’s list of humanity’s cultural heritage, joining shrimp fishing on horseback in Belgium and oxcart traditions in Costa Rica. Above, Julian Marley performs at a tribute to his father, the reggae icon Bob Marley.